A call for submissions
Full Bleed 9: Inheritance
Welcome to Full Bleed, an annual print and online journal devoted to the intersection of the visual and literary arts. For our ninth annual issue, we welcome submissions, from August 1 through November 1, on the theme of inheritance. We are especially interested in innovative projects combining word, image, and design; collaborations between writers and artists; ekphrastic creations; and ambitious critical essays.
Inheritances take on many forms: wealth, land, keepsakes, genetic material, artifacts, entire archives. We can also be said to inherit ideas and aesthetic traditions, political conflict, inequities, trauma, ecologies, or systems of belief. An inheritance may be a blessing or a curse. It can be life-changing and marked by turmoil or escape notice entirely. In some cases, a rightful inheritance can be forsaken, destroyed, or stolen, leaving future generations deprived of access to or understanding of the past. Essentially, an inheritance can be seen as a measure of the past’s ties to the present and future, of the bonds between generations and disparate peoples. Likewise, acts of dispossession can sever or disrupt such bonds.
As we anticipate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and the bicentennial of our home institution, the Maryland Institute College of Art, the Full Bleed team welcomes stories of inheritance that reveal truths about our contemporary condition. We are especially interested in work that reflects on inheritances that have influenced artists and writers of the past and present; that have been overlooked or obscured by time; and that involve ethical, repartive, or political predicaments. We will consider critical essays, creative nonfiction, poetry, short stories, visual art, and hybrid, genre-bending works.
Details
November 1 is the deadline for submissions, which should only be sent to us via Submittable. Final selections will be made by January 15, 2026, by the journal’s editors and advisory board members in collaboration with student staff members at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
We pay our contributors modest honoraria: 25 USD per poem or flash fiction; 50 for longer prose pieces and art portfolios.
Before submitting, please review past issues of our journal and the guidelines below. (Print copies of our most recent issues may be ordered here.)
Prose submissions should be double-spaced and include page numbers. Exclude your name and contact information from the document and from the file’s title. If appropriate, you may include endnotes (in accordance with the Chicago Manual of Style, please). Maximum length is 7,000 words.
Poetry submissions: Send us no more than five poems in a single file. Each poem should begin on a new page. Exclude your name and contact information from the document and from the file’s title. Note that we do not consider reprints of previously published work.
Art submissions: Please send us a portfolio of at least five and no more than ten images, all included in a single file. Do not include your name or contact information anywhere in the document, or in the title given to the file. You may provide an artist statement in our Submittable form or in the submitted file, as you wish.
Genre-defying work: We love to see projects that combine word and image, collaborations between writers and artists, graphic essays, and other experimental forms. If your work doesn’t fit neatly into the ‘prose’, ‘art’, or ‘poetry’ categories, feel free to send it to us under the heading on our Submittable page called: ‘Graphic Essays, Comics, and Other Experiments.”
You may submit in multiple categories, but please only submit once in each category between 8/1 and 11/1.
We expect to have responded to all submissions by January 15, 2026, if not earlier. If you have not heard from us by that date, feel free to send us a note. Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but do notify us immediately via email (fullbleedjournal@gmail.com) if part or the entirety of your submission is accepted elsewhere.
We are excited to review your work and thank you in advance for sharing it with Full Bleed.
